Alignment Tool
Laidout has two dedicated tools to align objects: the Alignment tool, and the N-up tool.
Align
This one lets you simply align to each other, or along a path, with a variety of alignment options and types.
Select a bunch of objects, right click, and select Align. You can select the mode by wheeling inside the circle. A red circle lets you set things up without changing current object placement, and a green circle automatically updates placements as you change settings.
- Aligned. Place objects centered around the line according to their own bounds.
- Aligned proportionally. Align on line, but space proportionally according to original placements
- Grid. Arrange at even intervals along the line
- Gaps. Flow along the lines, with custom kerning
- Random. place at random points along the line.
After positioning, there are a few rotation adjustments.
- Visual shift. Move items into place without changing their orientation.
- Shift and follow. Move items to the line, but only change rotation to align with the line
- Follow path. Align the object’s transform so their x axes follow the path.
There is also a common Presets menu to select common left/right/center alignments, with an extra to align around a circle:
Distribute / N-up
There is also a kind of table align tool, which is rather a rough work in progress. You can try your luck with it by right clicking from the object tool after selecting some objects, and selecting Distribute.
In the widget, drag the arrows around to control flow direction and priority, and wheel to change number of objects per row/column. Most of the distribute modes are currently unimplemented, but you can arrange in grid, or a grid whose column widths and row heights try to resize according to content extents, and distribute randomly in the original selection boundaries. Select the mode by wheeling inside the circle.
